Riverside
by whenthemarshmallowmettheslayer
Summary: The dvd cover shows robot monkeys (Would it be cyborgs?) fighting each other in an arena; it had been Saiko turn to pick a movie. When Mutsuki opens the case of the dvd it's instead a man - no, an one eyed ghoul sitting in a chair with a one hand on his face and the other carrying a book. (Characters watch the show expect it's the manga the Quinx Squad watch.)


A/N: If you want quicker updates check it out on archiveofourown. My pen name is youngjusticewriter on there. I really do update there quicker.

I wrote this mainly because from what I read from tumblr spoilers (I have finally read some more of Re btw.) the Qs deserved better. So this is a self indulgent characters watch the show with plot and character growth.

* * *

A door opens and then closes with a click. Briefly, as he pushes the power button on the tv remote, Mutsuki wonders who it is that's come out first. It's either Shirazu or Sasaki. The corner of the tv turns green to signal it's on before the screen starts to flicker into life. Urie would wait until the last minute (so not to spend anymore time with them as necessary despite waiting to regain his former position as squad leader) and Saiko wouldn't come out ealry because she was filling out her Quinx squad's daily report; that, waking up on time (Shirazu breaking the handle one of Sasaki's pans he'd been using to wake Saiko had been the last straw) and joining movie night every weekend with the rest of the squad was part of the deal Haise struck with Saiko.

It's shoes not feet against the carpet. It's Sasaki, Mutsuki realizes as he pushes the dvd player eject button. Putting his hands on the carpet Mutsuki pushed himself up just in time to see Sasaki enter with a pair of paperback books in his hand. Why is he carrying books Mutsuki wondered as he took the sight of Sasaki in. He's not wearing the CCG uniform, nor his casual clothes for around the apartment, instead Sasaki is wearing a dress shirt and a pair of stripped slacks. He's not staying for movie night. Or, Mutsuki muses, he won't be there for the beginning of it.

Sasaki smiles warmly at him, eyes on Mutsuki's face not his chest. You couldn't see anything because of the oversized hoodie Mutsuki was wearing, and he knew that, but none the less Mutsuki was uncomfortable despite knowing the health risks that could be caused from wearing a binder for too many hours.

"I'm sorry. Arima called and wanted to return a book he borrowed." There was a short pause before he corrected himself. "Has been wanting to return it but both our busy schedules got in the way. Do you and Shirazu think you can handle Urie for movie night until I get back? Saiko shouldn't be problem."

There's no bad joke but Mutsuki doesn't comment on it just like he doesn't mention the dark circles under Sasaki's eyes. (They've been growing.) It's not just him that will be there for their instructor when he finally (hopefully) confides to the squad. Sasaki had earned Shirazu respect after saving them from the Orochi and later Saiko's love and respect after she got over having been threaten with her consoles being taken away from her.

"We can handle it Instructor Sasaki," Mutsuki confirms. He smiles brightly again at him again before saying to text him if Urie is problematic. Mutsuki agrees to as he helps get Sasaki out of the door.

After locking the door's bolt and chain Mutsuki pads over to dining room table. The rented cd case for this weekend is laying ontop of the take out pizza brochure that's either Saiko or Shirazu's. The dvd cover shows robot monkeys (Would it be cyborgs?) fighting each other in an arena; it had been Saiko turn to pick a movie. When Mutsuki opens the case of the dvd it's instead a man - no, an one eyed ghoul sitting in a chair with a one hand on his face and the other carrying a book. Tokyo Ghoul is the title for the dvd that doesn't match it's case but Mutsuki pays it no mind as he narrows his eyes at dvd. It - the ghoul - kinda looked like a youn-

A door closes with a bang which startles Mutsuki out of his thoughts. When Saiko arrives she's got a blanket draped over her shoulder and a box full of pocky sticks in her hand.

"Umm, there's been mistake, Saiko. We've got some movie called Tokyo Ghoul instead of Mega Monkey four point two."

"What!?" Saiko cries out. Wordlessly Matsuki hands over the opened dvd case to the young woman just as another door opens. The frown that had made itself at home on Saiko's face only grows as she stares down the Tokyo Ghoul's dvd cover that doesn't match that of dvd case of Mega Monkey.

"Hey doesn't that actor look a bit like Mam-"

"So what are watching?" Shirazu asks.

Mutsuki turns her head to acknowledge the man. "That's the thing, uh, there's been a mistake. The movie - Mega Monkey - has been switched out for another movie."

Shirazu's eyebrows press together as he comments, "Someone must suck at their job."

Mutsuki doesn't reply, instead he wonders if Movie Stop is even open this late.

...Probably not.

"I know this wasn't the movie you wanted Saiko but how about we watch it and once we return it we can get a proper copy of Mega Monkey," Mutsuki suggests as another door (the final one) down the hall opens. "I'm sure we'll get it for free or a refund for this movie considering the mistake."

Saiko frowns lightens yet it's obvious that when she looks up from the dvd case it's begrudgingly. Urie joins them silently, lips tight as he is the first one to get on the couch.

"But it'll be Shirazu's turn next week," Saiko voices her sudden thought.

Shirazu smiles kindly (though it might not look kind to anyone but them because his sharp teeth) down at Saiko. "Eh," Shirazu simply shrugs before carrying on his sentence, "we can switch our weeks just this once. Tokyo Ghoul probably going to be more my kind of thing anyway. Also where's Sas-san? He's usually here before Urie even when he's got his nose stuck in one of those horror books."

"He's gone out to meet with Investigator Arima," Mutsuki answers.

"One day I got to ask if it that umbrella rumor is true," Shirazu mumbles under his breath. It's sounds like it's unto himself so Mutsuki doesn't reply, instead he put the dvd in before joining Urie and Saiko on the couch. Shirazu sits next to Saiko without a word and they begin.

"**The horrific ghouls haunting the streets of Tokyo...what exactly are they?" **

Terrifying, Mutsuki thought as the scene changes to a man - a familiar one though Mutsuki couldn't place where he had seen him before - talking on a tv screen; the fear he had felt at facing the Torso despite working for the CCG - despite be a Quinx - still laid heavy on Mutsuki's mind despite the time that had past.

"**To answer that question, our guest here today is ghoul researcher Dr. Ogura." **

"Oh not that guy," Shirazu gripes. Saiko turns her head to him but before she can ask her question he shakes his head, "I'll explain later."

"He's a(n idiotic) publicity hound not an expert researcher...(Also what's he doing on this movie?)" Urie wonders.

**"Ooh, check out this sketchy dude," the dyed blonde haired character muttered. **

Shirazu snorts at that; it was a niggling suspicion for now but he might like this character. Hopefully he wouldn't get eaten by some ghoul... Wait.

"That actor looks like Sas-san!" Shirazu cries out what everyone is thinking.

**"I'd bet you'd be eaten before you knew it, Kaneki. Since you're a nerdy weakling always reading those weird books.** "

Saiko pulls out her strawberry pocky stick so she can comment. "I thought that too!"

Urie raises a disbelieving eyebrow, ("You did?")

At the silent judgement Saiko carries on, "When I was looking at the cd cover cause this wasn't the movie I rented."

**"They say ghouls hide amongst us disguised as humans. They could be closer than we think."**

**The camera began to focus on several other occupants in the coffee shop. Most were customers but two were waiters. A girl that looked familiar and an old man.**

"...Maybe they're related?" Saiko offers up as an idea on what was going on.

"The actor be a ghoul then," Urie points out.

"**Wait a second! I bet you're a ghoul, Kaneki."**

**"Yeah, right. If I was a ghoul...you'd be dead already," Kaneki rebuffed to his talkative friend.**

"Technically Instructor Sasaki is half ghoul. There could be a chance they're related through whoever is his human parent," Mutsuki suggests.

(..."You have a point but) there's still half a chance he's a ghoul," Urie argues back as Saiko finishes eating her pocky stick.

**"This is probably what they look like," Kaneki told him before showing a sketch of a monster. **

"Hey why doesn't the CCG inform the public more about ghouls? We'd get less calls about ghouls that turn out to be dogs if they knew more about what a ghoul is," Shirazu suggests.

Mutsuki silently agrees with him despite the ashamed, bright blush staining his cheeks at the memory of that assignment. Only for his embarrassment to be pushed aside at the new character shown on the screen. Didn't she look like the waitress from Re:?

**"Can you take our order?!" The energetic blond cried out.**

**"Yes?"**

**"I'll have a cappuccino! What about you?" He asked, turning his head to look at Kaneki who was embraced.**

**"I'm fine."**

No, Mutsuki was pretty sure that was the waitress that Sasaki had cried at seeing...

"**Hide! What the hell, man?"**

**"She's so cute..."**

"As funny as Kaneki's face is right now when are we getting to the ghouls?" Shirazu asks just as the movie showed a woman entering Anteiku. Yes, the actresses were pretty but where was the action?

"**Kaneki." The chatty character said as he put both his arms on Kaneki's shoulders. "I'm saying this for your own good. Give up! She's way too hot for you. If she took those glasses off, she'd be something else."**

**"I know...she's out of my league," Kaneki admitted with a defeated expression.**

Saiko takes the newest pocky stick out of her mouth before crying out, "You can't know unless you try!"

Urie rolls his eyes; that was true (and ironic from where it was coming from) but yelling at tv like they could talk to the characters was stupid.

"**You know you're kinda creepy. She's forcing a smile cuz you're staring at her."**

"His expressions," Shirazu manages to say despite the lack of breathe he feels from laughing so hard. Oh this Kaneki was nothing like Sas-san despite how they looked alike.

...Well maybe they are, Shirazu corrects himself with wide eyes. It, them both liking Sen Takatsuki, was just a coincidence but still something about it that left Shirazu on edge.

**"Y-Y-Yes! I love Sen Takatsuki!" Kaneki cried out and the woman didn't look at all bothered with that smile painted on her face.**

Okay, Shirazu thinks, the both of them are terrible flirts then.

"-**on top of that, it's the book store date of my dreams!" Kaneki relayed to Hide.**

Shirazu mouth fell open in shock. He isn't only who feeling shocked. Saiko's eyes are as wide as an anime character's, but eventually she shrugs.

"Hide's right!" Saiko chirps out. Long as the two have fun it didn't matter what anyone thought.

"**A similar incident took place on Shirakami street. The composition of the body fluid matched that found at the scene from the 28th," a new anchor announced as Kaneki wondered what to wear.**

("The idiot it going to be attacked by the ghoul that keeps getting mentioned,") Urie guesses in the privacy of his mind. ("and then he's going to join the CCG when his girlfriend dies isn't he?")

**"I was just, uh...Just wondering why you're only eating a sandwich..."**

**"Oh." Rize raised a hand to her mouth. "I'm on a diet. I've been eating too much lately."**

Shirazu voices what everyone is thinking, or rather suspecting, in only two words: "Oh shit."

This had not been what he meant when he had wondered where the fight scenes were going to happen.

**Th-this is going kinda well, Kaneki thought as the waitress from earlier passed the couple by.**

The last of Saiko's pocky sticks lay forgotten in their box as she shakes her head, blue hair brushing Shirazu from the action. Saiko's lips were pursed thin as she watches the screen; she's watched Death Parade and Attack on Titans this shouldn't be anything to her yet...

Maybe it was because Kaneki's actor looked so much like Maman. Or because this could happen this could happen to someone because ghouls were real unlike Titans and Arbiters.

"**What's up, Touka?" The woman walking with her asked.**

**The screen panned in on Touka's face as she spoke, "Nothing."**

"She knows," Urie voices the observation out loud. Touka was probably a ghoul but with the other girl it was unclear.

"**I can hardly sleep at night," Rize confessed to Kaneki as she brought her trembling fingers to her lips.**

"Oh, yeah, sure you have," Shirazu snarks at the television.

Mutsuki' lips are thin as he stares at Rize and Kaneki. It was probably about to get bloody and he wanted to look away but -

It's just a movie, Mutsuki reminds himself as his nails dig into his palms.

**Rize walked closer so she was chest to chest to Kaneki. "Kaneki the truth is..."**

Saiko was shaking her head so fast it was miracle it hadn't fallen off. A mantra of 'no, get away' was going on in her head; oh why had there been a movie mix up? All she had wanted was some more Mega Monkies and now she was about to watch this character get eaten by something that did indeed live in her world. Something that was her job to kill to protect people like Kaneki and all Saiko had done was ignore it. She had never wanted to be a CCG Investigator though. That fact felt more like an excuse then it did the truth.

**"I noticed the way you've been looking at me. Kaneki...I've been-"**

**Rize had taken a bit out of his shoulder. **

**-watching you too."**

"Holly shit." It's a whisper not a shout. Shirazu had not been expecting the special effects and make up team for the movie to be that good. It was actually accurate which said something because the majority of the public didn't know what ghouls look like.

Maybe one of the people who worked on the show had survived the ghoul attack?

"**Huh?" Kaneki voiced as he fell on his ass. She bit me, he then thought.**

"Yes!" Saiko screams out. "Now run you idiot!"

**"Oh no are you all right?" Rize cooed before giggling. She was wiping the blood on her chin before sucking it off with her fingers.,**

**"Hey Kaneki there's a scene I really like in Egg of the Black Goat...It's the one where the Black Goat rips out the guts of a man trying to run away. No matter how many times I've read that part it gets me so excited."**

("Hide was right. She did become something else when she took of her glasses.") Its an observation of foreshadowing and nothing else because this was a movie after all.

**"I understand. How could you have know? You never could have guessed that I was a ghoul." After she finished speaking Rize released her kagune.**

"A rinkaku." A pause then Shirazu speaks again though this time it was under his breath. "Fuck."

**"I wonder if you'll taste better than the two I ate earlier this week. You're not very muscular, so your tender. Just the right amount of fat."**

If Mutsuki didn't already a low opinion of Rize he would now. Two other victims just from just this week?! It was likely the ghoul was the Binge Eater then...

"YES!" Saiko screams as the construction beams fell on Rize. It makes Mutsuki jerk his head to the sound, his thoughts interrupted (happily though despite the gore of Rize's death because Kaneki got to live). Poor Shirazu was wincing from how loud Saiko had screamed next to his ear and Mutsuki could just feel Urie glaring at Saiko.

**"He needs...organ transpl.."**

**"We'll use her organs. Their blood type matches."**

It was now Shirazu's turn to scream, "Don't do that!"

Saiko was shaking her head again. "Come on Kaneki did nothing wrong! He just wanted a date."

It's interesting, Urie notes, how there was a movie about a person having ghoul organs transplanted into them after their squad having recently started...

**A naked Rize was pressed against Kaneki, who too was naked, as she covered his eyes.**

**I'm not the protagonist of a book or anything...I'm just a normal college student who likes to read...But if I were to write a nook with me as the main character-**

**"His pulse is stable."**

**"The operation was a success!"**

"Maybe it'll be the opposite of a jinx?" Saiko suggests knowing full well she's grasping at straws. It was movie after all. There had to be drama plus with being a quinx squad member she knew better but still... "I mean he hasn't yet said it'll turn out fine or ask what will go wrong."

**\- it would be a tragedy.**

**Kaneki was shown then opening his eyes. One of them was a kakugan.**

**He was an one eyed ghoul.**


End file.
